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New middle school 'on schedule'

But contractor having trouble finding masons, board hears

By Jenni Grubbs

Times Staff Writer

Posted:
05/06/2016 10:56:17 AM MDT

Work continues Thursday on the new Fort Morgan Middle School in southwest Fort Morgan. The project is on track to meet the Aug. 24 completion date and be ready for school to open Aug. 29, according to owner's representative Dan Spykstra of Wember Inc. (Jenni Grubbs / Fort Morgan Times)

The new Fort Morgan Middle School is on track for the promised Aug. 24 completion, according to owner's representative Dan Spykstra of Wember Inc.

That means that school should be able to start on Aug. 29 as planned, but there is still plenty that needs to be done on the new middle school before then.

However, the project is "on schedule," Spykstra told the Morgan County Re-3 School District Board of Education in his construction update on Monday night.

"It's coming along really well," Spykstra said.

He described the work going on this week each of the six buildings that make up the new school.

Buildings A, B and C contain the classroom areas. In Building A, workers are installing flooring and counter tops, painting walls and getting ceilings inspected. Buildings B and C also are getting ceiling inspections, work on painting and flooring and wall tiles installed, as well as work on the exterior metal.

Building D is getting drywall finished up, as well as painting and wall tiles installed for the main entrance and administration wing. In Building E, work is happening on mechanical, electrical and plumbing rough-ins and insulation and drywall are being installed for the cafetorium and kitchen. In Building F, painting is happening and basketball goals are being installed in the gyms.

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Out in the courtyard area between buildings A, B, C and D and the gyms and cafetorium of buildings E and F, there is "still a lot of mud out there," Spykstra commented, but work is progressing.

"To date, all inspections have met or exceed the project requirements," he stated about materials testing of things like concrete, soils, compaction, welding and masonry grout. Also, the commissioning agent, RD3, has "started performing field observations for installed mechanical systems" and all code inspections by third-party inspector Ninyo & Moore as of Monday night had passed.

He also went over with the school board members some of the plans for furnishings for some of the inside spaces. Spykstra showed them layouts for the media center, a typical sixth grade classroom and a science room, and pictures of specific chairs and desks that would go in them.

School Board President Connie Weingarten asked Spykstra if there had been any "challenges" lately with the construction project.

He identified "labor force" as one concern.

"Masons are hard to find," Spykstra said, adding that the project was not yet a critical stage for having masons available to work.

Otherwise, some of the mud on the site had offered messy working conditions, but that was "no major challenge," he told the board.

And the project was still on schedule.

"We're still feeling good about our dates," Spykstra reinforced. "They haven't given me any reason not to feel good."

Finances

As far as finances for the project went, the billings as of Monday night totaled about $22.83 million, according to Spykstra. After the contractor's latest funding request of about $5 million, there would still be about $13.17 million available of the about $36 million total coming from the BEST grant and the Re-3 School District.

The latest funding request is part of the guaranteed maximum price agreement between general contractor Haselden Construction and the school district.

There were some district-requested change orders approved totaling about $66,000 for "relatively minor things," according to Re-3 Chief Financial Officer Mike Lee, but there were another $300,000 worth of proposed change orders still being considered. If those change orders were all approved, it would leave around $132,000 in the district's contingency fund for the middle school construction.

The contractor also had some change orders, many of them related to recovering from weather-related delays and other ways of speeding up the project, as authorized by the school board. But the change orders do add up, with the contractor's contingency fund dropping from $534,310 to $209,578, according to Lee. Whatever is left in that fund does revert to the school district when the school is completed.

"Their change orders do not affect the contract," Lee told the board.

And overall, he did not see any red flags with the change orders from either the district or contractor and the related costs and impacts to the project budget.

"Nothing's really jumping out as a big concern," Lee said. "We're right on track. ... We're just keeping the costs identified."

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